Get the mine key!

[JRD]

Boy, that was a tough one!

Shep Sanders sent me to Arid Hills, to a place called Sledge's Safehouse to retrieve a key to a mine! Man, I thought it could be easy!... little did I know!

As soon as you get to Arid Hills from Fyrestone you are greeted with a horde of wild skags... Fire Skags, Spitter Skags, Alpha Skags... you name it, they will be upon you before you can cry "DIE MOTHERf@#$ER", and that's just the beginning. A small outpost on top of a hill right after the welcome and a stroll trough a compound like place where you have to collect parts of a sniper rifle on a previous mission... needless to say the place is full of foes. But that's just the path to enter Sledge's Safehouse and that's where the fun begins... all sorts of altered beasts and abnormal creatures waits for you at every corner of the place. It looks like a slaughter house with human parts everywhere. Some of the toughest regular enemies so far... can't name them now, but Badasses, Midgets and Psychos are some familiar names. Of course, the tougher is the task, the better is the loot!  ;) . During my journey I got a SMG with an explosive elemental feature... high fire rate, reloads really fast, 24 rounds per mag and after rescuing one Claptrap into the place I got extra room for my belongings (15 instead of 12) and also I can now carry 720 rounds of SMG total, which means I'm a killing machine at mid to close range  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Add that to my life saver Rocket Laucher (7 rockets fired per shot in less than one second), my Incendiary Sniper, grenades that blow up and spread some other five or so smaller grenades all around and countless Rifles of all flavours and colors!... man, I'm a happy mercenary...

Even so, get to the damn key was painful  like hell.... had to thoroughly get the hang of which gun to use on each situation and against each enemy (shock against shielded enemies, incendiary or high fire rate SMG/Rifles against Bandits, hardcore shotguns or rifles against Badasses and so forth) untill I finally make it to the main room where the key lies. Obviously, it was well guarded by something the size of a hornless minotaur and some freak midgets. I used all my rockets on the big guy but the small pests got me... I died and went back to the closest New-U station one room before... and as I get closer to the main room again I thought I would have to go on again against the beast since the beginning, but it was already waiting for me (it only shows up the first time when you get closer to the key). Since you have a kind of pit separating you from the main room, all I had to do was find a sweet spot from where I could snipe the beast with my toughest gun... it took some 10 headshots to bring it down, but I finally did it. Something I would never be able to do if I was face to face with it! (I'm working towards the Assassin tree, increasing my Critical - Headshot - damage)

Got the key... now head back to Shep!  :D

Getting in was tougher than getting out due to my recently acquired arsenal... but it doesn't mean it was an easy getaway!!! And to face the whole Skag Family, toughest than never, right at the passageway back to Arid Badlands  >:(( >:(

In the end, levelled up a few times, got much more firepower and now, having the mine key all is left is... open the mine, get in and kill Sledge!

Sounds easy? I seriously doubt it! But that's where the fun is....  >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D

[mmosu]

Sounds like you're movin right along JRD  :-X
You'll like Mordecai more when you get him leveled up, and it sounds like your build is starting out similar to mine.  I specialized him for maximum damage from criticals, gave him health regeneration from kills, and then worked on pumping up the bloodwing attacks and also increasing my mag size for sniper rifles.  Last was to invest a few points in the "gunslinger" tree, which I had largely ignored until I was getting near level 55. 
If you've enjoyed it so far, wait til you finish off Sledge and leave Fyrestone - to get to New Haven you'll have to cross the Dahl Headlands, so kick the tires, smell the gasoline fumes, and brush up on your Mad Max references, cause you're gonna be doing some drivin'  >:D

[JRD]

Cool... I'm looking forward to it!  :-X

Actually, I'm playing Lilith... I like to have a SMG or Assault Rifle with me, plus a sniper and that is the initial combo I got. My Mordecai playthrough is Level 5 so far but I might give it a go once I finish with Lilith. But to be honest, I don't want to go through all that again... maybe if I can start again with Lilith on level 61, then things in the early stages won't be annoying

I started by getting some more points on my shield and now I'm getting more critical hit points and fire rate. Since I can change it later on, I think it's a good choice!

I just finished a mission where you have to collect some 50 pieces of crystal in a cave... man, that was another tough mission... those damned skags just refuse to die, same for some bandits near the end when you are coming back... freaking annoying... you shoot it 5 or 6 times in the head or empty a few clips of either incendiary or explosive ammo with a good SMG and it just keeps charging on you!

[deadman1]

Here´s a little tip for dealing with the skags at the beginning: Just after you enter, head up the right side of the gully and jump on to the top of the large pipe that serves as a tunnel. The skags will have a hard time getting to you and you can snipe most of them before finishing them off with either a AS or SMG, On the way back, try and get up on the roof of the house on the right side (where you meet the first human enemies). From ther you will have a good view of the gully with the skags and you´ll be quite protected  ;)

[Art Blade]

deadman!  ;D This board is getting rather populated recently  :)

JRD, nice descriptions of your experiences so far, I'm looking forward to playing myself :)

[JRD]

Thanks deadman, that exactly my approach. On my way back, with better guns, I could deal with the skags (fry the bastards  >:D ) in a less painful way - for me at least - sniping and sending some grenades and rockets from the house... yet one or two is tough and always find a way to get close and personal. Thing is, in Level 15 you already have guns to deal with tougher enemies but still not the best guns - not to mention that enemies get tougher and tougher as well!  :-D

[mmosu]

They'll keep getting tougher too.  For that reason alone, it's beneficial to spend some time "kicking the tires" as I like to call it before leaving Fyrestone for good.  In other words, make sure you're good and leveled up to the point where most enemies you are encountering are a few levels below you - this will save you the time and frustration later that happens when you get "stuck", as in "I can't get past X until I've leveled up some more".  When things like this happen in RPG's it can delay progression of the game to the point where playing it starts to feel like w@&k, and nobody wants that ;D  I did this on my first through and it was great, I didn't "power-level" through it (that is, refuse to progress until at a very much higher level than you're supposed to be at in that point - a practice that can really erase the challenge factor), but I also never really felt like I was "stuck", but rather free to progress through the game at the rate I wanted.  If you're 3-4 levels above Sledge when the Arid Badlands missions are complete, then you're good to move on and establish your foothold in the Dahl headlands without much frustration imo.

[Art Blade]

useful information, cheers  :) :-X

[JRD]

I could get a similar message from that "Guardian Angel" chick that appears before your eyes when you are about to go into the mine in Arid Badlands... I still have a lot of business to do there and even though I'm looking forward to see what's ahead, I still prefer w@&k on a safe schedule where I take all I can wherever I am before I move on!  ;)

Borderlands is the kind of game I like to thoroughly go through... which translates into levelling, powering up and gunning up!  >:D >:D >:D >:D

But thanks for the heads up... always good to hear from someone that knows Pandora better than I do!

I'll keep this board warm and I hope I can get feedback from you experienced guys!  8) ;)

Now, if you excuse me, I have some Skags to kill!!!